Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

It's not THAT drastic. In fact, for 3 HOURS at the salon, I am surprised I don't look more different. It is a nice pretty light, goldeny brown, with some highlights. We'll see if anyone even notices.Tomorrow after the Oil of Olay shoot, I get to audition for Pirates at Papermill Playhouse in NJ. I am excited because I played Mabel over 5 years ago, and it was one of my most favorite roles. It will be nice to be her for about 5 minutes tomorrow, for the audition.

Monday, February 26, 2007

Good News!Today I got the call around 5 PM that I booked the Oil of Olay Facial Cleanser Commercial.

Yippee.

Finally that skin-o-mine (thanks MOM) is working hard for the money.

Here is the interesting part. I have to lighten my hair. 10 AM tomorrow I am going to (the apparantly famous) Sally Hershberger 14th Street Salon for HIGHLIGHTS. No, not the magazine. HIGHLIGHTS. The last time I had highlights were last May, and you could barely tell. Yes, I'm scared.

Also today...I auditioned for a reading of Ripper, the musical...an audition passed along to me by my friend Kym Mellen. When they called with my appointment time on Friday, they asked for me to prepare a Weill/Brecht piece, preferrably something from Threepenny Opera.

Of course I did my research, read the synopsis, listened to the music, downloaded Barbara Song, and learned it. This took a lot of my time and concentration this weekend. The entire train ride over I was listening to it, because memorizing all that music and all those words in a weekend, is not a piece of cake, especially for this mommy brain.

Small digression: As I was preparing all of my materials this afternoon I had a "little voice" tell me to go find the music for my best BELT piece, and restore it to my song book (a big pink binder full of my repertoire in handy dandy sheet protectors). So, I went and found it and restored it.

Back to the audition. I am sitting there, trying to get in the mood of my piece, and remember my words, and 2 minutes before I am to go in and sing, the producer asks me to sing a BELT piece.

Oh my.

Part of me was ticked, the other part was relieved, because it is never a joy to sing that new audition song for the first time, especially when it is learned so quickly, and especially when it is Weill.

I went in, sang my BELT song (that the "little voice" told me to track down), and was called back on the spot. So, Thursday I will be (upon their request), wearing my highest heels, wearing my hair back, and auditioning for the role of Liz, for the reading of RIPPER THE MUSICAL. Thanks Kym.

Friday, February 23, 2007

I had 5 auditions today.1. 10:30 AM Callback for OIl of Olay. At 4 PM my agent called and said I was in the running and asked if I was willing to lighten my hair?My answer? YESher respone...."Would they have to change it back for you?"my answer...I would appreciate it.

Thursday, February 22, 2007

She had a busy day. So what else is new?She had not one, but two kids on Tuesday, because it was spring break. The snow on the ground and the salt covering her coat would say otherwise, but nevertheless, spring break had arrived.

She promised the Toys R Us Ferris Wheel if the girls were good. It was one of her better bribes.

First up, an Oil of Olay commercial audition. As they shuffled off the elevator, a familiar face.

Victoria said: “We keep seeing you EVEYRWHERE. There’s Kristy, There’s Kristy There’s Kristy, There’s Kristy” Her tone illustrated excitement to recognition to slight annoyance. Overall, though, she seemed happy for her. She had to cut her off though, because there was a schedule they had to adhere to, and signing in as soon as possible, was part of that schedule.

She signed in. Only one girl ahead of her…that meant not a lot of time to get settled and change. She changed into the required camisole, and just for kicks, unrolled her jeans, and exchanged her snow boots for heels.

After a little bit of waiting, the casting director said: “Come on in troops.” Since she seemed open to it, and there was no copy for this audition, everybody filed in. Baby was strapped in the stroller, and big sister sat next to her on the floor. They were just to the left of the camera,watching her.

She perched on a stool, and looked to her right, straight on, and down…while the camera did an extreme close up on her face. Then she had to show her manicured hands. In her head she said: “Please ignore that zit, and just pretend you didn’t see those smudges on the manicure that I threw on last night!”

The girls were not completely quiet, but she didn’t care, because this audition was only about one thing….that oil of olay skin.

Done, on to the next one.

Since the weather was a bit mild compared to the previous few days, she decided to get a workout, and hoped that the baby would fall asleep on the way to the next audition.

Baby went in the stroller, and big sister stood in the back of the stroller. She pushed 85 pounds(26 (baby) + 43 (big sis) + 11 (stroller) + 5? (bag)) 16 blocks. Phewsh. By the time she got to the audition, she was a little tired.

She went up the elevator to the 11th floor, filed into the holding room, and found a nice spot in the corner to hang out. Apparently they got there just in time, because a few short minutes later, the room was flooded with women vying for that coveted role in Mary Poppins. Yup, she was back, 1 year later, trying for Mary Poppins, AGAIN. The room was SO full of women, she knew it must be against some sort of fire code. The girls were being so good, as the heat, sweat and smell got more and more pronounced.

The monitor read through the 522 names on the list. Every time a name was called out, the baby raised her hand. No honey, they are not calling YOUR name. She was #10, so she didn’t have to pay attention for very long, and she patted herself on the back for getting up early the week earlier so that she could be #10 on the list.

35 or so excruciating minutes later, it was time to sing. She left her older daughter in the room with a friend, and brought the baby out to stand with her in line until it was time to go in, at which time she handed her off to a second friend.

Announcement: 8 bars, ladies…they want to see as many of you as they can.

Ah…the old 8 bars trick. Well, 4 bars (at least) is usually your last note, which allows for a very short selection.

She opened the door and walked into the room. WHAT A RELIEF to be away from the hoards of smelly, sweaty women. She expressed that:

“For once I am so glad to be in this room right now, it is CRAZY out there”

The room was nice and cool and comfortable, and she wanted to stay in it all day.

She sang her 8 bars and they wished her luck upon exiting back into the chaos.

Good luck indeed.

She gathered her posse from her two friend-helpers and this time it was a shorter 12 blocks to Toys R Us. They rode the ferris wheel, picked out a few toys on sale and ate a wonka bar.

On the way home they stopped by the OSCAR exhibit hosted by Good Morning America, thanked the little people, and then headed home.

She was anxious to blog about her crazy day, and all of her anxiety became times a thousand when she found that her computer was unconscious….still had a pulse though, but a pulse will not a blog make.

The next morning her new best friends, the GEEK SQUAD fixed up her baby nice and pretty, and then it was time to contend with Verizon.

Yes, Verizon cancelled her DSL…..(a condo adventure gone bad…remember, the closing and original transfer of DSL was on Wed)…so this delayed the blogging even further. She loves the Geek Squad. She hates verizon. Oh the ups and downs.

Monday, February 19, 2007

Since I have only been given a vague idea (middle of March) of when I MIGHT be closing on my condo...I sit and daydream about it, and ideas start forming in my head. So I am making plans.I am not an interior designer, so I have been studying. I have been reading design magazines, watching TOP DESIGN on Bravo, consulting my stylish friends, and paging through the galleries at dominomag.com. Thoughts and ideas are forming.

At the risk of being completely torn down by my loyal readers, I will share some of my ideas here.

My dream is to have a retro-style 50's diner booth in my place. I have been struggling with how to incorporate this into the "great room" for weeks. I have toyed with having a very neutral naugahyde put on it to make it fit in with the modern colors of the place...looked at all sorts of combinations (two booths, a booth and two chairs, a round booth), and I just can't get it to work for the space, and in my mind. Plus, I really want to get the sparkly pink crazy one...so I am going to put that dream on the back burner for a different space or when my kids move out or SOMETHING.

That brings me to IKEA. My husband and I have tried to limit our IKEA purchases because let's face it, IKEA just doesn't hold up. However, I spotted this at a recent IKEA trip, and I could not stop thinking about it. I am in love with it. I will tell you why.

1. It is modern looking and marries form and function. It just becomes this little tiny space-eater, and we can use it when we sit down to eat our 1 meal a day for 8.5 minutes.

2. It's small...I think it is only 35 inches in diameter.

3. It's affordable.

4. I am going to see if I can put a tablecloth over the WHOLE thing once in a while, to change up the look...

Another part of the great room is the bar that attaches to the kitchen area. I suspect we will eat here more than our little tiny table. I also think this will grow into a place where my kids sit and snack or do homework or just talk to me while I am busy trying to make magic in the kitchen. I bought these stools for our counter-top. The aluminum will match the stainless steel appliances and the hardware on the cabinets, quite well I think.

I love this rug. I have been debating about whether or not to get it, because it is cream, and it's quite chunky. But I thought...we are REALLY good about no shoes in the house, and my vaccuum has all sorts of settings for thick to thin rugs, so why not. Plus, I saved about $170- by purchasing it on ebay. And you know how I love ebay. I try not to be a conformist, but I see this type of rug in a lot of ads in these mags I have been reading...it's kind of a modern trend right now. I am hoping it will bridge the gap between my blue couches (that I want to get rid of, but my kids will just destroy the next couches, so we might as well wait until they are older and more mature), and the rest of the modernish stuff I want to put in the place. I have also bought some new pillows to put on the couches that will help the whole story make sense, one of them is pictured below, from Urban Outfitters.

Sunday, February 18, 2007

Okay it has very little to do with my talents...but I am still getting to ride on the waves of the success of Susan Elizabeth Phillips' new hardcover: NATURAL BORN CHARMER. Check out #3 on the list. As Bernie Mac would say...AMERICA, Happy Reading!...and don't throw the slipcover away!

Friday, February 16, 2007

So here it is....I woke up this morning feeling optimistic about the day. As I was riding to the audition, I was going over time steps in my head. This helped me to keep the jitters away.

I arrived at the New 42nd Street Studio and rode up in the elevator with a very nice smelling, thinner than normal, Brian Dennehy, who is rehearsing Inherit the Wind. He was way nice.

I got there and it was calming to see several familiar faces: Girls I have met through auditions or classes. Everyone was really nice. I had brought all my shoes, as I was told, and noticed most gals were putting on their character shoes, so I did the same.

Right at 10 we were escorted into the space. There was Susan Stroman, her assistant choreographer, and two assistant teachers...as well as the pianist and the two casting associates.

The assistant taught us a bit of choreography-it was quite short. It was soft-shoe/musical comedy-ee. I had a really hard time with the first two sets of 8...it's like I couldn't get the first step, so I was not properly set up for any new dance moves added on to that. I started panicking a little, but then just told myself not to give up and to just have fun.

I asked one of the assistants for help, and she was so nice and patient and helpful. Soon, everything seemed to click.

Then it was time to do it for Susan. She put us in groups of two. I was in the first pairing...lucky me. I told my partner I had good luck going first, which is true (Nuvaring and TW3 were two great jobs I booked, that I went first). The first time through I did pretty good...can't complain. Once everyone had gone, the assistant choreographer reviewed a few parts, and then we lined up and did the dance by twos again, and I guess apparently this time was the REAL THING. I still did fine...no major mess-ups. This time I started really watching everyone else, and I decided that if you had to divide us in groups of good and not-so-good, I would be in the good group.

Here is the best part of the day. About midway through the 15 groups of twos, a girl with fishnets and a red leotard took the floor. About 3/4 of the way through her dance, one of her sisters popped out of the leotard...by the time she got to the ending kick, we were getting a regular old peep show. It was pretty fantastic. She didn't let it ruffle her though, just put those two ladies away, and acted like nothing happened.

As we neared the end of the line, Susan surprised us by yelling: ONE MORE TIME...so there I was dancing, having not really mentally prepared, and my third time through for her was consistently satisfactory.

Then we were all excused. Oh, the lovely waiting outside the door with all of these girls that you want to beat.

The casting associate came out and said he was going to call some names of people they wanted to stay and sing, and the rest of you THANK YOU SO MUCH.

I had no feeling at this point...but I was pretty sure if 3 names were called before I heard mine, that I would not be hearing my name, simply because I was in the first group. Both my partner and my name's were called. I was happy. I tuned out the rest of the list. I counted...there were 12 of us called.

We were asked to sing the same song from our original audition. Follow your Fart it is! They laughed...I sounded great. I felt in control. The song went well.

Then I heard these words from Susan: "Ok Kristy, I need you to go over there and tap dance for me"

THANK YOU BIG GUY UPSTAIRS FOR GIVING ME THE IDEA TO TAKE TWO PRIVATE TAP CLASSES THIS WEEK.

I learned a short little tap combo with her assistant, and once I had successfully executed it, they said THANK YOU.

I'm writing this BEFORE the dreaded, I mean EXCITING dance audition (scroll down to see my tu-tued WEE MEE). I am excited. I am going to try to have fun, and do my best. I am really glad I had the tap classes this week, because I feel much more prepared then I might have.I have had one of the craziest weeks ever...and to top it all off I JUST made the deadline to apply for this job...so if I make some sort of cut, I am counting on all of you to VOTE VOTE VOTE...but don't worry I will give you precise instructions later.

I had an audition yesterday for the ABC Pilot. It went as well as it could have. I felt fine about it....no word yet, so we'll see.

I also had a disagreement with my elderly neighbor. She saw my Tide ad for the first time in Good Housekeeping Magazine and told me how she was certain I was wearing an orange color, and that it was for ORANGE BLOSSOM scent. I told her I was pretty sure I was wearing blue and that she was mistaken.

The very nice casting associate said: "Then just bring a hard-sole shoe, and you can wear those. This is not he DANCER DANCER call."

She sighed: "Ok good."

Her mind raced. She could handle a SINGERS WHO MOVE WELL Dance Call, but tap dancing? gulp. She needed help. A Class! But from who? She didn't want to walk into the Broadway Dance Center with a hundred other SINGERS WHO MOVE WELL and try to make up for 15 years without tap in her life, in one hour....think think. She needed friends...friends who dance?

She called the ballet school where her daughter takes ballet on Wednesday afternoons and begged them to put together a private tap class for her, THAT night and the NEXT night. They graciously agreed and she went to her class.

Flaps, Shuffles, The Cincinatti, Cramp Rolls or are they called Crimp rolls?, Single Time Step, spins....she was dizzy for an entire hour after the class was over. But she danced. She TAP danced. And she will dance tomorrow morning...yes she will.

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

I got this in the mail yesterday. It's a picture of me dancing....I think it's a good omen for my dancing audition on Friday...who cares that it's for an opera...which is usually not about dancing very much, I think those are mainly about singing.

Monday, February 12, 2007

I am tired. This morning I had a casting for APPLE that was a total cattle call. Luckily I got there early enough that I was in and out in a reasonable amount of time, and my baby was really good...an angel actually. On the way home I got a call from my agents: "Did you go to the apple casting yet?" YES..."ok, nevermind." Not sure what that was about.There is a snowstorm in our future...the very near future. I believe it is supposed to hit Tuesday or Wednesday. Apparently the weather people are so sure of this, that everyone is becoming quite sure of it as well. My DH's business trip to Toronto was cancelled in anticipation of this Noreaster, as it is called.

I am looking forward to the snow because we have not had significant snow yet. I am not looking forward to it because I am working both Tuesday and Wednesday, and this makes the logistics of a working day a bit difficult.

Where am I working you ask? Oh...I'll tell you.

I have a print casting for Yoplait. I will be photographed, and then my (what I consider kind of large already) ears will be made larger than they are with the magic of photoshop. I would tell you why, but then Saatchi & Saatchi would have to kill me.

Then on Wednesday I am shooting a Downy commercial. Again, the details of which I would love to reveal, but that will have to wait. I am extra sensitive to publishing the campaigns behind these products because they are both test-runs...so focus groups will watch them and like them or hate them, and then the fate of the print ad and television commercial will lie in their hands. I of course want the focus groups to go ga-ga over these two bits of media so that they run for real.

Either way, I am looking forward to working this week, it is a nice change from the auditioning scene.

Friday, February 09, 2007

I am auditioning again. That means I am schlepping myself to open calls around the town. I haven't done this since the Mary Poppins open call last February, that led to a few more auditions and ended up dissappointing me....a lot. So, it took a while to recover from that and I am back in the saddle again.Here is a little education for those of you who are unfamiliar with how this works. There are two types of auditions that I attend: EPA and ECC.

EPA is Equity Principal Audition, Equity: union member, Principal: Main role, Audition: stand in front of people and sing or act or dance and much of the time humiliate yourself, other times not. Usually you can sing a full song for this audition. For this call you sign up the same day as you audition, which means if you want a guarenteed spot, or prefer a certain timeslot, you get there hours early, because it is first come, first serve.

ECC is Equity Chorus Call, Equity: union member, Chorus: parts that are NOT the main parts, Call: come on everybody, put your lashes on and sing us a song already, but only 16 bars, and later in the day we will cut you down to 4 (seriously has happened before). This audition is governed by a list. The list goes up exactly 7 days ahead of the audition. If you want to be high on the list (and thus sing sooner), you line up hours early on the day the list goes up. The day of the audition, you have to be there a half hour before the auditions begin, to say YES when you hear your name, and then get a card with your number on it. The general trend is whatever number you are on the list, you will probably get a card that is about half that. Then there are the union members who are NOT on the list, and the non-union members who hang out ALL day with a slight glimmer of hope that they might be seen, and I would NEVER be able to handle that, so I am glad I am union.

I prefer ECC's for the following reasons:1. The get-there-hours-early-and-wait-in-the-cold happens on a day that I am NOT auditioning.2. I am up early everyday, and most actors are not b/c they don't have kids or they work in restaurants or in the theatre, so I have a better chance of being seen in the first time slot for an ECC b/c it is not a big deal for me to go sign up early.3. You are DIScouraged from singing a full song. I hate singing full songs, and I feel awkward at EPA's sometimes, when I don't sing a full song.4. Usually we are auditioning at EPA's for roles that have already been cast (by stars), so I feel that an ECC has a better chance of the casting directors ACTUALLY looking for talent.

Anyway....on Wed. I had an EPA for Shrek, the musical. I had been working on my rock song for about a week. I got there SUPER early because I wanted to get back to my kids, and I was just DREADING the cold. Little did I know, that the Union building has a cold-weather policy, where they open the building early, so you don't have to freeze outside. YIPPEE....anyway I ended up being the FIRST one to audition, and the song was so-so....I left feeling BAD.

But today was an ECC. I was #10 on the list, so I got a card that was #8. I was feeling good about this audition for a few reasons:1. The call wanted high sustained notes, good diction, and height: 5'6"-5'11". (I saw some girls that were shorter than 5'6"...). So, those are three of my strong points.2. The casting director has cast me in my last 4 major jobs, and also called me in for a handful of other great jobs that I did not get.3. I had broken through the hords of girls that came out for Mary Poppins at this call last year, so I thought it was possible to do it again.

I was sitting in the holding room waiting to line up and sing, and a woman that I had made friends with started talking about how she struggled to find a funny song that was also high and sustained, so she just rewrote words to her song, and was hoping they were funny.

So my innermonologue/dialogue began: Oh crap. I paid attention to the type of music (traditional musical theatre), the requirements (high sustained notes), the diction, the height (couldn't have changed it if I wanted to), and even though I knew it was a Mel Brooks musical, I wasn't even thinking about being funny. CRAP. Ok...I have 3 minutes to rewrite my song....what are the lyrics...."Follow your Heart, whenever it calls to you, whatever it tells you to do...." but wait, that's not the 16-bar cut I was going to sing.....Follow your Heart....Follow your Fart. Hey....Fart rhymes with heart...that's funny right? But I have to change my cut to the beginning instead of th end, and cut to the end so that I can sing the high note, ok this is going to work.

I turn back to the woman and say...."I was going to sing Follow your Heart, which is not funny, but Follow your Fart kind of sounds funny.....?"

She said: "I triple-dog dare you" So, of course I had to do it.

I was waiting outside to go in and I heard that the musical director of Young Frankenstein was our pianist, and that THE casting director herself was in the room. This never happens. So I reconsidered my choice, and remembered the triple dog dare, and went for it:

FOLLOW YOUR FART....whenever it calls to you, whatever it tells you to do.A fart has reasons the mind cannot know....follow your fart, wherever it tells you to go...So please don't wait to go...just follow your FART.

Thursday, February 08, 2007

I knew it was going too smoothly. We had our walk-through last night and everything looked really good. There were a few dings here and there, and a few light switches that were not hooked up to whatever they needed to be hooked up to, but for the most part....it excited me.The highlights? Self-closing drawers in the kitchen...you just push and they like magically slide closed...very cool. The fact that the two bathrooms have two different color schemes...one is grey with dark wood, and the other is taupe with lighter dark wood (and a heater for my freezing cold toes in the morning). The floors looked really great. I am very excited about those. They had more character than I realized. And of course, I got to see the washer and dryer yesterday. Wow. Amazing. My first appliances.

We also had news that it was appraised for more than we paid...always a plus. What else? Oh...just that we are now closing in March.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGHGHGHGHGHGH.

Ok. Truly, if I had found out about this date a few weeks ago, I would have been VERY fine with it...I prefer March to February actually....but now the ball is rolling for February, and it's not good.

Here is why it's not good:1. I have sold furniture...thus I have boxes of stuff that the furniture was holding, piling up...already.

2. We have cancelled our gym memberships in anticipation of the gym in the condo (this one isn't SO bad since we aren't the best at working out lately).

3. My daughter's birthday is at the beginning of March. I was planning on a party in the new nice organized clean condo...and now I will have to plan a party around an apartment that has boxes everywhere...

4. My husband's new drivers license is being sent to the new place...whoops.

5. I have to deal with all the annoying things that I don't want to deal with for even longer now.....waaaaaaaaaaaaa. 3 words: Laund-RO-MAT

6. The Container Store is delivering lots of boxes of the makings of lots of closets on Feb. 19th...just add it to the pile guys.

But I am grateful for the new condo, and it's going to be great and exciting yada yada yada...

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

17 days until we move into our new condo. I have gone from being sentimental about moving, to ready to move.

Last week when I was cleaning the house, (before we rearranged our audio/visual set up, sold our bookshelf and coffee table, and packed our books into boxes and stored them in a corner), I thought...this is the last time I will clean our apartment the way we lived in it the past 4+ years. This is the last time I will dust these books, rearrange these curtains etc. etc.

And sure enough, it was the last time, because like I mentioned above, we are purging ourselves of country-style bookshelves, magic-markered coffee tables, McDonalds Happy Meals Toys. We are getting rid of some of our FIRST furniture as a couple...our first dinette set, our first CD player...the list goes on.

It is bittersweet. The bitter part is that I can't EXACTLY afford all the new stuff I am anxious to fill our apartment with...no really the bitter part is that we are moving forward, and we will be leaving many great memories behind in this dwelling that we have called home for a handful of years.

Then, awash with these sentimentalities, I leave my apartment door and choke on the cigarette smoke drifting up from my landlady's apartment, hit my head on the heating pipe that is too low for the doorway into my garage (that doesn't have a light, so it's pitch black until I hit the garage door opener OR the Unlock button on my keyring, that I can never find because it's pitch dark...vicious cycle), grab the stroller before the door slams, and then get stuck on the rug that happens to be the EXACT width of the wheels of my stroller, and I basically stifle curses the entire path out of my apartment and into the -5 degree world....and I think....I will NOT miss THIS.

My husband has a slightly obsessive personality when it comes to certain things. For one, whenever I have a commercial of mine on DVD, he watches it over and over and over and over and over again.

Similarly, ever since we have bought the condo, we have to drive by it. We do this once or twice a week. It's not terribly close by...it requires either a highway path or an arduous local way. When we get to the building, we literally just drive by it. We don't stop, we don't slow down, we don't pull over, we don't admire, we just drive by and then go home.

During one of these drives it got exciting because there were all these people about. Soon I started seeing a theme. I deduced from my quick observations (remember, we don't stop or pullover, we just keep driving) that there were teams, costumes, shopping carts and utter madness. I SO wanted to pullover and ask someone what was going on...but alas...that is not part of the drive-by routine.

So, when I got home, I started googling like crazy. I don't know what finally worked, but I eventually figured out that what we had drove past was the finish line for the third annual Idiotard. A shopping cart race that starts in Williamsburg and ends in Long Island City. You can read all about it in this article

After reading about this shopping cart race, I decided I want to be in it. However, I am a little concerned about the following: The fact that the pit stops of the race are at bars, the fact that there is a lot of food-chucking that happens along the way, and where am I going to get my cart?

I would like to compete as a family team, but I am worried my children are a little too young, despite the fact that they are now the PERFECT size to push in the cart the whole way. It is also in January, which sounds painfully cold, if it's anything like today.

Maybe instead I will just dress us up and cheer everyone on at the finish line, since it is RIGHT by my new house....and keep my eye out for a shopping cart, for future races.

Monday, February 05, 2007

I bought a combination straightener/krimper, curling/spiral curling iron thingy for our wild hair photoshoot. I played around with a bit, and came up with a new hairdo. My husband hated it. I guess honesty is the best policy. I wore it to church like this yesterday, anyway, and a few people commented that they liked it. It was DEFINITELY a change for me...takes too long to do though.

Friday, February 02, 2007

Check out this free giveaway from my FAVORITE baby gift store...SPONGY FEET. Check out the gallery on her website, and see if you can guess which baby's are mine! These blankets make SUCH a great gift, so go get one for free.

So here are the rest of the photos that we took with Michael Wood. This dress was a dress that belonged to my mother in the seventies. Here it represents well as the crazy clown house dress. I think it works. The photos below are my favorites, but if you have 5 minutes, and would like to browse through ALL the frames from our photo shoot, click here.

My grandmother emailed me some background information about her mom in the dress...From her email:

"There you were again wearing the dress and also there was a picture of my Mom. What a fun surprise that was. It took me back to 1945 in Logan, Utah, at Max Brunson's Studio where that picture was taken. I was with her. She was 45 years old. I liked that dress so well that sometimes I borrowed it and wore it on a special date. I remember the year because I was year book editor my junior year (1945) and Max took all the class pictures and I worked with him all year. I talked Mom into coming to Logan and having him take her picture. He took at lot of me when I was in college. I don't know how you got it and am not even sure I have one but I did recognize it immediately. Most our family portraits had been done by Mr. Compton in Brigham City. Being as home cameras didn't do so well in those days most everyone had to go to the photographer every few years for a decent picture. Anyway it gave me a lot of pleasure to see. You look darling in the dress with the polka dot hose by the way. She and my Dad would have enjoyed seeing you bringing it up to present day fashion standards. Just thought I needed to tell you have much it meant to me to see her and you in the same dress and side by side in print.."

Thursday, February 01, 2007

Everyone keeps telling her she has to sing rock. She has an audition coming up for Shrek, the musical. (Don't get excited, it's just an open call). When she told her daughter she was auditioning for Shrek, her daughter replied: "Shrek 3? the movie?", quite excitedly. No, not Shrek 3.Shrek, the musical requires that all auditioning sing a rock or R & B song. She has been doing a lot of karaoking in the past 6 months, so she has some good ideas, but can't quite solidify them until she consults with the karaoke expert.

She asks: Karaoke expert....what is that song that Joni was singing at karaoke the other night that goes: "How do I get you alone?"Karaoke expert: Alone by Heart. You should also check out (and then she lists a ton by Heart and 2 tons by Pat Benatar).

They go to Colony Music and pick out a few music books, and because it is Karaoke Expert's birthday, she throws in the Wicked Karaoke CD for her, for kicks. They walk to the subway train, and karaoke expert sings all the songs to her. She is still pretty set on ALONE.

She has been practicing for the past two days...the audition is next Wednesday. Her daughter seems to be catching on, as in the middle of her lego play she bursts outs: "How do I getchoo alone?" She smiles, because she thinks it's cool when her daughters pay attention to her job.

She is actually looking forward to her first rock song audition...she is even planning on attending a RENT open call. She really has absolutely nothing to lose at this point, so she figures...why not?